68 INSECTS AFFECTING VEGETATION 



detailed later, treatments for the root-worm and berry moth will 

 also keep this pest under control. 



The insect passes the winter in the adult or beetle stage, hiding 

 under trash in and near vineyards, especially bordering woods. 

 About the time in the spring that the grape is in bloom the beetles 

 come from their hibernation quarters and for the first few days or a 

 week are quite sluggish, but gradually become more active, feeding 

 on the foliage of the grape until the berries are about one-fourth 

 grown or of sufficient size to be suitable for receiving the eggs ac- 

 cording to Mr. Brooks, in 1905, covering a period of about 25 days. 

 This habit of feeding on the exposed portions of the vines some 3 to 

 4 w r eeks before egg-laying permits of their ready destruction by ar- 

 senical poisons. Late in June, in the latitude of West Virginia, the 

 females begin depositing eggs in the berries, excavating a cavity in 

 which a single egg is placed. About 4 to 6 days, varying w r ith the 

 temperature, are required for the eggs to hatch, and the resulting 

 larva burrows through the pulp, reaching the seed in 3 or 4 days, 

 which is penetrated and the contents devoured. In 12 to 15 days the 

 larva has become full grown and leaves the berry by eating a hole 

 to the outside, falls to the ground and at once seeks a suitable place 

 for pupation, as under stones, lumps of earth, or just below the sur- 

 face of the soil. Here an earthen cell is made and the larva trans- 

 forms to the pupa, the adult beetle emerging in the course of 18 or 

 19 days, at first blackish in color w r ith gray hairs, but soon becoming 

 the normal brown color. 



The beetles feed freely upon the foliage of the grape in the 

 spring for several weeks before egg-laying begins and continue feed- 

 ing in the fall after egg-laying ceases along with beetles of the new 

 generation, and it is thus an easy matter to bring about their de- 

 struction by arsenical sprays. The treatments advised for the grape 

 berry moth and root-worm, with perhaps an additional treatment 

 2 or 3 weeks later, will practically control the insect. 



Fruit may also be well protected by bagging the clusters soon 

 after the grapes have set, as already mentioned in connection with 

 the grape berry moth. 



Grape Leaf-Hopper. Throughout the United States and Can- 

 ada, wherever the grape is grown, this small leaf -hopper will almost 

 invariably be found in greater or less numbers infesting the lower 

 surface of the leaf, where it feeds and breeds, increasing in numbers 

 as the season progresses, until by late summer and fall the vines are 

 often literally swarming with it. Throughout its extended range the 

 insect may be quite destructive in some localities nearly every year, 

 and is likely to become so elsewhere at any time. The grape leaf- 

 hopper is an insidious pest, often not notioea by the vineyardist until 

 late summer and fall, when the yellow and brown-blotched leaves, 

 falling prematurely, attract attention, by which time the injury has 

 been done. The insects in feeding extract large quantities of liquid 

 food, sucking it out from the interior of the leaf by means of their 

 tube-like mouth-parts. When they are abundant this constitutes a 

 heavy drain on the vitality of the plant, The injury to and loss of 



